bend the church

In the final portion of deacon Stephen's message to the Sanhedrin in Acts 7, he accuses the Jews, his own people, of being "stiff-necked," a long-used description of God's People's stubborn resistance to ​Him, which Stephen amply illustrates in recounting biblical history.  And in particular, ​Stephen says, you always resist the Holy Spirit" (Acts 7:51).  

​I believe this is true of us in the church as well, ever since those momentous days of the first church revival.  Though we have received a new nature through The Grace of God believed and received in the Crucified, Risen and Ascended Savior, and have become responsive to God as Paul states in Romans 7 - in my inner being I delight in God's Law (vs. 22), nonetheless, he continues - I see another law at work in me, waging war against the Law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me (vs. 23).  You and I are prone to resisting The Holy Spirit, needing repeatedly to turn to God Who delivers [us] through Jesus Christ our Lord" (vs. 25) and to keep on being filled with The Holy Spirit (Eph. 5:18).

In studying the revival in Wales of 1904-1905, which not only transformed that nation but also the rest of the world (including encouraging the LA Azusa Street Pentecostal revival of 1906), there was a persistent prayer: "Lord, bend the Church, save the world."  God primarily uses His People to promote revival for non-believers, and so we need to be restored first.  The Holy Spirit, Who now seems to be preparing to move in power and revival in our world, seeks to "bend" our stiff necks so that we might "bend the knee of our hearts" before Him (Eph 3:14), and not resist The Holy Spirit when He comes.

So let's make this our prayer: "bend Your Church, Lord!"  "And bend me first!"